The Land Compensation In Land Expropriation

Since the reform and opening up, China’s fast urbanization process has made non-agriculturalization of farmland to speed. As a result, a series of problems had been raised: the lost of cultivated land, food crisis, and the compensation for landless farmers, etc. Currently, the speed of urbanization didn"t slow down by people’s effort of protecting the agricultural land. In this situation, the ministry of land and resources of the People’s Republic launched a new’linking the increase and decrease of the land for construction use in both urban and rural areas’ policy,(’linking’ policy):"Change the rural construction land (mostly farmer’s homesteads) back into the arable land, and the increase amount of the urban construction land should match the increase amount of arable land." In this way, the demand of land for rapid urbanization could be met without losing too much arable land. Although the intention of the "linking policy’ is good, it’s against the widespread rule of connection:it doesn’t consider the connection between the homestead and agricultural land, nor between the living and production, leading to the farmers’ inconvenience both at work and in ordinary life. Further, the policy doesn’t see through the phenomena to the essence:the change from homesteads to construction land is not only the change of usage, but also the change in the ownership-from the collective ownership to the state ownership. As there are no systematic rules about the collection of homesteads and the compensation for the fanners who lost their land, such policy’s disadvantages largely overweigh the advantages. The re-development of the original homestead in suburban areas has become profitable to the local governments and real-estate companies, while leaves the farmers with little benefit. Apparently, the distribution of benefits in this way is not fair. This paper aims to protect fanner’s interest in the process of urbanization, and suggests several ways to ensure that the fair compensation is given to the farmers inexchange for their rights for using the property.This paper has four parts:Firstly, the paper presents the development of the’linking policy’ regarding to the compensation given to the farmers in exchange for their rights for using the property, including the historical inevitability of rural land expropriation, the background of the varied problems occurred during the collection of rural land, and how the policy is adjusted.Secondly, the paper presents the systematic problems of the’linking policy". In my opinion, the main problem is that the scope of compensation for lost of land is vaguely defined by current law. In addition, the ownership of land in China is not clear, which also results in the unfair compensation for farmers.Thirdly, the paper suggests how the rights and obligations attached to the land can be better defined by law. Although we should not deny the reasonableness of current reorganization of ownership, it’s necessary that fanners’rights of using their homestead to be emphasized, and separated from their rights of other properties. Only if the right of homesteads is clearly defined, the adequate compensation amount can be correctly assessed and given to the farmers.Lastly, the paper discusses the necessity and feasibility of the implementation the compensation policy, including the principle, the scope, and the ways of how the compensation policy can be implemented.